


How to Raise a Dragon

by Tinamour



Category: Da Vinci's Demons
Genre: Crack Fic, Dragons, Fantasy, Gen, because Zo, swearwords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 07:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11122380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinamour/pseuds/Tinamour
Summary: Leo finds something in the woods and Zo doesn't approve





	How to Raise a Dragon

“You can’t keep that as a pet.”

“And why not?”

“Leo…” Zo took a deep breath, pinched his nostrils as he gathered his thoughts, and finally had the courage to face his best friend’s smiling and innocent face. “This is a fucking dragon.”

The beast huddled tighter in Leo’s arms, puffing a small cloud of smoke with what sounded like hissing, as if the creature had understood the meaning of the words. Zo watched in utter disbelief as Leo, that annoying smile still strapped to his lips, scratched the chin and neck of the creature, making it...purr? Zo wasn’t sure what to call the sound, but the little red devil had closed its eyes and raised its head, emitting weird deep roaring sounds as Leo’s fingers tickled its scales.

“Are you jealous?” Leo asked when Zo let out a long sigh. “Is Uncle Zo jealous? I think he’s jealous.”

“I’m not fucking jealous! But, Leo, you have to put it back where you found it. You know that thing about how, when you find a pup, the mother’s never far? Well, if that thing is a youngling, I don’t want to meet its parents.”

“But it’s so small!” Leo complained. “We can’t leave it here all alone.”

“Yeah, sure why not take it home with us and wait for it to burn down your studio? Maybe you will even give it some help!”

Leo wasn’t listening anymore, already walking back to Florence, crooning at the dragon in his arms. Zo sighed once more, which never achieved anything, not even calming his nerves, and ran to catch up.

“I’m sorry is “getting burned at the stake” on your to-do list?” he panted as he tried to reach Leo. “Maybe they’ll let that thing light the pyre before tossing you both into it.” He finally got close enough to step in front of his friend and grab him by the shoulder. “Leo, the Medicis will execute you for sorcery - if that thing doesn’t kill you first!”

Leo barely shrugged.

“No he won’t. He loves me.”

“He’s chewing on your arm.”

Leo lowered unimpressed eyes to the sleeve of his tunic, which was now showing more of his arm than it was supposed to. The dragon was peacefully chewing on a piece of cloth, taking a small bite when he finished the first part.

“We are  _ not _ taking that home.”

Zo’s declaration went unanswered.

“He must be hungry,” Leo thought out loud, already fussing over the beast. “It’s funny he would eat linen, though. It’s not known to be a good fuel. Maybe he just needs fibers and, since he couldn’t find wood…”

Leo’s eyes darted upwards and scanned the forest around them. Zo couldn’t stop him before he picked a dead branch from the ground and poked at the dragon’s mouth with it. The creature sniffed the stick, opened its mouth...Zo breathed more easily when it suddenly lost interest in the piece of wood, rubbing its head on Leo’s forearm instead.

“I think he likes your shirt better.”

Leo shrugged and started walking again towards Florence again, crooning at the dragon about how he was going to give him good meat, and build him a nest, and…

Zo let out one more useless sigh, and followed suit.

/////

 

Nico sported the same excited and bewildered gaze than Leo had hours ago when he found the dragon pup. If the kid was backing Leo on this, there was no way in hell they would get rid of the beast.

“Where did you find him?” asked Nico, who was looking with interest and amazement as the dragon took ferocious bites of the meat strips Leo had cut out for him.

“The forest, one mile away from here,” explained Leo. He was sketching the little thing, who growled in warning when Leo carelessly tried to lift one of its wings with his hand.

“So that’s what they call a dragon…”

“You can also call that trouble,” Zo said bitterly. “I know it’s cute and small for now, but one day, that thing is going to be as big as three cows mounting each other, and it’ll burn us all to the ground. Sorry to kill your enthusiasm, Leo,” he fell compelled to add when his friend turned sad eyes to him, “but that’s just how it is.”

“We just have to keep it hidden.”

“And how will you do that when he is taller than your studio?”

“Okay, it’s going to be hard but…”

“It’s going to be fucking impossible. Look, I’m already compromised enough in the eyes of the Republic to take that risk.”

Leo put aways his sketchbook and stared at Zo, his arms crossed.

“Why are you so contrary?”

“Look, I’m behind you, always, but this,” Zo pointed at the dragon, who was now yapping joyfully as Nico scratched its belly.

“This is a bad idea?” tried Leo.

“Stealing that boat from Vincenzo was a bad idea. Provoking the entire Barking Dog into a bar fight was a bad idea. Sneaking into Saint-Anthony's convent disguised as nuns was a bad idea. But this…This, is the pinnacle of bad ideas.”

“So what do you propose we do? Take it back where we found it? Fiero will be dead in two hours on his own.”

A characteristic Leo and the dragon apparently shared. But that wasn’t the most pressing issue for now.

“You named that thing?”

“He needs a name, since we’re keeping him.”

Zo opened his mouth, found nothing to say, and only glared at Leo. As if it would change anything.

Muttering under his breath, he stormed out, down to the Arno.

He came back a couple hours later, carrying planks of wood, cloths and a tome whose leather cover had almost completely crumbled.

“You had better make sure that thing doesn’t set us all on fire. Train it, invent fireproof material, a fire extinguisher, I don’t care! Also, it doesn’t get near my stuff.”

When he saw Nico’s huge smile and received a kiss from Leo, Zo knew he had made the right decision. Now, he could only pray the rare gods that still listened to him that he wouldn’t live to regret it.


End file.
